Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) Rose 2.0 Percent in February from January

Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) Rose 2.0 Percent in February from January

Wednesday, April
8, 2009 - The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) rose 2.0 percent in February from its January level, rising from its lowest level in more than
five years, the U.S. Department of Transportations Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS) reported today (Table
1).

The February increase was only the second
since August and, at 2.0 percent, was the largest one-month rise since January
2008 and the fourth largest in the last five years (Tables 1, 2).

The 0.3 percent
decline in the first two months of 2009 was the third decline to start the year
in the last four years. The index rose 2.9 percent during the first two months
of 2008 (Table 3).

Other than the
January low of 102.7, the Freight TSI has not been this low since September 2003
when it was 104.4. The Freight TSI is down 7.4 percent from its historic peak
of 113.1 reached in November 2005. For additional historical data, go to http://www.bts.gov/xml/tsi/src/index.xml.

The freight TSI measures the
month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire freight
transportation industries. The index
consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and
air freight.

The
6.0 percent decline from February 2008 to February 2009 left the freight index at
its lowest February level since 2003 (Table 4).

Despite the
February increase, the index is down 4.4 percent in the five years from February
2004, the third five-year decline in the 19-year history of TSI data. The first ever five-year decline was from
December 2003 to December 2008. The
index is still up 3.1 percent in 10 years (Table 5).

The TSI is a seasonally adjusted
index that measures changes from the monthly average of the base year of
2000. It includes historic data from
1990 to the present. Release of the March index is scheduled for May 13.

BTS has issued a
technical report explaining the TSI. BTS Technical Report: Transportation Services
Index and the Economy is available for download at
https://www.bts.gov/pdc/index.xml in the BTS bookstore.

Transportation Services
Index for Passengers

The TSI for passengers rose 0.1 percent
in February from its January level (Table 6). The Passenger TSI February 2009 level of 112.8 was 3.2 percent lower
than the February 2008 level, the first February-to-February decrease since 2002
(Table 7). Despite the recent declines, the passenger index is up 11.6 percent
in five years and 20.5 percent in 10 years (Table 5).

The passenger TSI measures the
month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire passenger
transportation industries. The seasonally
adjusted index consists of data from air, local transit and intercity rail.

Combined Freight and Passenger Index

The combined
freight and passenger TSI rose 1.5 percent in February from its January level (Table
8). The combined TSI February 2009 level of 106.4 was 5.3 percent lower than
the February 2008 level, the third February-to-February decrease in the last
four years (Table 9). The 5.3 percent decline from February to February left
the combined index at its lowest February level since 2003 (Table 9). The
combined index is down 0.6 percent in five years for the first five-year
decline in the history of the combined index, but is up 7.4 percent in 10 years
(Table 5).

The combined TSI
merges the freight and passenger indexes into a single index.

More on TSI

Note: TSI numbers for October (Freight, Passenger and Combined)
were revised because of revisions in the output data of the component
transportation services. The October Freight TSI is 106.7, revised from the 109.1 reported in last months release. The October
Passenger TSI is 114.9, revised from 114.3.
The October Combined TSI is 108.3, revised from 110.1. The TSI for November, December, January and
February are preliminary.

TSI
revision policy: TSI is updated monthly with the latest four months index
numbers considered preliminary. Each month BTS releases the latest
preliminary TSI, and replaces the oldest preliminary TSI with a revised
TSI. More information about the monthly revision policy, the
comprehensive revision conducted in July 2007 and the TSI index is available at http://www.bts.gov/xml/tsi/src/index.xml

Brief Explanation
of the TSI

The
Transportation Services Index (TSI) is a measure of the month-to-month changes
in the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries.

The
TSI tells us how the output of transportation services has increased or
decreased from month to month. The index can be examined together with other
economic indicators to produce a better understanding of the current and future
course of the economy. The movement of
the index over time can be compared with other economic measures to understand
the relationship of changes in transportation output to changes in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP).